Women's Volleyball

Gauchos Downed by No. 7 Stanford, 3-0

STANFORD, Calif. -
The UC Santa Barbara women's volleyball team had its hands full on Friday evening as they faced-off with the 2007 national runner-up, No. 7 Stanford. The Cardinal swept the Gauchos, 25-13, 25-17, 25-21 on the second day of the Stanford Invitational being held at Maples Pavilion this week.

With the loss, UCSB falls to 3-4 on the season while Stanford improves to 6-2 overall.

Junior outside hitter Rebecca Saraceno led the Gaucho attack, tallying 10 kills. She was the only UCSB player to hit double-digit kills in the match. Sophomore middle blocker Kasey Kipp had a team-best .357 clip, collecting six kills on 14 attempts with just one error. Sophomore outside Charlene DeHoog managed six kills with eight digs.

Senior libero Leigh Stephenson collected 13 digs during the pairing and sophomore setter Dana Vargas dished out 21 assists and also laid down two service aces.

For the match, UCSB hit just .097 (29k, 19 e, 103 att) and was out-blocked 7-1. The Gauchos, for the second consecutive night, struggled at the service line, tallying three aces but erasing the advantage with six service errors.

Stanford was led by Alix Klineman, who had 13 kills and a .444 clip (1e, 27 att) during the match. Klineman also collected five digs, one ace, and four block assists. Cynthia Barboza chipped in a double-double performance with 10 kills and 14 digs. Barboza also notched a pair of aces. Cassidy Lichtman led the squad with 27 assists.

As a team, the Cardinal hit .344 on the match (41k, 10e, 90 att), including a match best .538 percentage in the second set.

Stanford was quick to jump in front in set one, starting out with a 5-1 run. Behind DeHoog, however, UCSB recovered as the sophomore gave the team a lead at 8-7 with her third kill of the set. The Gaucho momentum was short-lived though, as Klineman sliced consecutive kills to start a 9-0 Cardinal rally. Barboza was credited with two aces during the surge, and a UCSB hitting error capped the Stanford run at 19-11. The Cardinal finished the set by taking six of the next eight points. Back-to-back blocks earned the last two points of the set for Stanford and the 1-0 advantage with a 25-13 set one victory.

Gaucho hitting woes led to an early Stanford advantage in the second set, and Klineman's first ace resulted in a 7-2 Stanford lead. The Cardinal held the margin until the media break, and then began to once again push forward. Stanford took a 17-10 lead on a Barboza kill but UCSB was able to trim the lead to four at 19-15. Unfortunately, that was as close as the Gauchos would get. Stanford sealed the set win when Klineman tallied her eighth kill for a 25-17 final score.

In the third set, the Cardinal took an early 8-5 lead, but the Gauchos strung together a four-point run to grab a 12-11 advantage. UCSB was able to build the lead to two points at 14-12 on a kill by Kipp, but the Cardinal used back-to-back kills to tie the set at 18-18. A Gaucho hitting error gave the lead back to Stanford and the Cardinal didn't look back, eventually taking the set at 25-21.

The Gauchos will close tournament action against New Mexico State on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.